Bliss and the bigger picture

 I saw this at the online publication The Conversation:

Marcus Rashford: finding purpose off-field can improve sporting performance 

October 30, 2020 1.37pm GMT

 In line with and beyond the findings of that article, I would argue that its ramifications are of vital importance with regard to how benefit claimants are treated, especially under Universal Credit 'Claimant Commitment' and the obligations it imposes on benefit claimants.

When I was a disabled jobseeker from late October 1977 to early 2009, I experienced several rejections, and but for my ability to express myself through creative writing and other achievements that did not get me waged work, and my close friendships, I would not have survived nearly as well as I did. 

 

In all that time of 'improving my employability' mainly through self-directed learning and support from Quakers and relatives in getting manual typewriter to home PC, my waged employment tally amounted to a mere 17 months, the last 11 of which had been so part-time that I submitted part-time earnings form at jobcentre on a fortnightly basis for Jobseekers Allowance top-up. That work was domiciliary care, requiring me to walk a minimum of a six mile journey to and from clients' homes while I could not afford bus fare and was not reimbursed for travel to and from work.

 

(Jobseekers Allowance [JSA] denial led me to risk of eviction as Housing Benefit suspension, worsened mental health and on-the-job performance. I gave up that part-time work to pursue the benefit that was owed to me, concluding that my worsened on-the-job performance laid me prone to charges of 'neglect' that would limit my work prospects while government neglect would not be penalised. 

 

(JSA later admitted to a miscalculation of my earnings; but when I would have got the back money owed to me, that was overwritten by my getting as much money in Holiday Money related to my part-time hours all coming to me with my closing pay cheque from domicilary care employer that I'd just left.)

I had done plenty of volunteering as child care rota volunteer and later basic computer skills coach to disadvantaged adults and even cabaret performer for a mainstream audience and adults with learning difficulties. Through the latter, I gained the inspiration for a song parody that I'll probably upload to Youtube at a later date, along with perfomances of some of my poems. Later 'citizen action' with Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group through being a member helped enhance my sense of the bigger picture even more.

Importance of 'the bigger picture' and 'following our bliss'

The above cited article from 'The Conversation' includes this about golfer Rory McIlroy:

In 2011, golfer Rory McIlroy experienced a very public performance meltdown at the prestigious Masters tournament. Later, McIlroy went to Haiti as Unicef ambassador, witnessing the damage caused by the 2010 earthquake which devastated the country.

“You’ve just been in a place where millions of people have no clean water, and millions of kids get no education, and you’re nervous about hitting a golf ball into some water!” he later told sports writer Paul Kimmage. 

 Something the article does not mention is the pressures placed on footballing goalkeepers as 'last line of defence' and the high level of suicides among footballers, particularly goalkeepers.

The 'bigger picture' in my life while the support systems offered me as a disabled jobseeker always let me down as if I was the let down can be viewed in the words of Jonathan Swift:

Although [people] are often accused of not knowing their own weakness, perhaps as often they do not know their own strengths. It is in people, as it is in soils, where sometimes there is often a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.

That is similar to the Sufi saying, "There is a treasure within each person," and the Quaker standpoint that "There is something of God within each person."

'Welfare reforms' in the UK state benefit system have made life harder for disabled people and been linked to several thousands of suicides that the Department for Work & Pensions wants hushed up, to the point of hiring top barristers to represent them at inquests so that the coroner does not call for a public inquiry.

 

Meanwhile, as someone who has never been a top sports person, I maintain the life-enhancing value of grasping 'the bigger picture', following one's bliss.

 

"My general formula for my students is 'Follow your bliss.' Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it." — Joseph Campbell

 Though "the help you need, when you need it" from Jobcentre Plus and its forebears ('Manpower Services Commission' and 'Employment Service') let me down as regards getting where I wanted to go, following my bliss kept me alive and I believe would be more easily attained under an unconditional Universal Basic Income system than a 'Universal Credit' system that reinforces modern slavery.

Alan Raymond Wheatley